/ ‘KAH-shee-Ah /

When I reread Jonah, I uncovered how 4:6, became more than words on a page—it was real in my life. “God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.” It’s one thing to read that God Word, but it’s another thing entirely to live through His faithfulness found in the Word of God.

How about you? What have you thought or said when God called your child to Kingdom work? What steps did you take—or fail to take—to raise your child in the faith? How often have we used our lips to dedicate our children to God, but in our hearts, withheld them?

I reflect on my life and see how many red seas have been split, how many miracles have taken place, and how God has (and many times did not) intervene for my greater good through prayers. I encourage you to think of the many times God intervened (or didn’t) in your life; you will find it tracing back to a prayer you have made or someone else made on your behalf.

Hagar calls him the “God of Seeing,” reflecting the profound friendship that Jesus embodies. This is the kind of friendship that Jesus has, one that would make him selflessly leave his throne to comfort someone like Hagar, a slave, a gentile, a nobody.

We all have a family origin story, trials and tribulations of some sort, and people who have shaped who we are for the needs that God knew our children would require. God gave us the strength (and courage) we required before we knew we needed it.

Disciplemakers are God's agents for his redeeming plan for creation. This means that we have more to hope for as we sit across the table from our disciples, children, peers or in a room of our fellow ministry members.